Contributors

Wang An-Shih (1021–1086 CE) rose to the rank of prime minister during the Sung Dynasty and instituted economic and social reforms. In his retirement he turned to writing poems about the Chinese countryside where he lived.

Ellen Bass’s latest poetry collection is Like a Beggar. She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University. In an alternate universe she would have been an animal trainer.

T’ao Ch’ien (365–427 CE) abandoned a life of government work as an act of political dissent and went to live as a farmer in his ancestral village. His poetry was written while he was in seclusion.

Alan Craig is the pseudonym of an aging writer with funny hair. Years ago he experienced chest pains while waiting at a ticket counter in a train station. Certain it was a heart attack and too embarrassed to ask a stranger for help, he bought his ticket and staggered to the train, hoping for the best. He wonders if this means that he’d rather drop dead than make a scene.

Doug Crandell lives and writes in Douglasville, Georgia, where he relaxes by watching his Great Pyrenees fall asleep. His most recent book is They’re Calling You Home.

David Hinton is a writer, translator, and recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He lives in East Calais, Vermont.

Ted Hughes was Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II from 1984 until his death in 1998. He authored more than forty books, among them Birthday Letters, a collection of poems about his marriage with the writer Sylvia Plath.

Lee Rossi’s poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review and North American Review. Now well into retirement in San Carlos, California, he continues to improve his homemaking skills, with a marked aptitude for preparing hot dogs and prewashed salads. He wonders if it’s too late to seek refuge in the priesthood.

Leath Tonino is a freelance journalist and a poetry editor for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. He recently won an award for an essay about climbing North America’s oldest mountaineering route, the Trap Dike on New York’s Mount Colden. He lives in Vermont.

Yang Wan-Li (1127–1206 CE) was both an advisor to prime ministers and emperors and a serious Ch’an Buddhist practitioner. His poems often recount moments of enlightenment that arise from everyday life.

Marion Winik lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where she is known for her guacamole, baguettes, and kasha varnishkes. Her books include Highs in the Low Fifties and First Comes Love. She writes a column at baltimorefishbowl.com.

Chris Ambrosino is a photographer and film producer whose work has been shown at New York’s Greenpoint Gallery. He lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His image in this issue is his first published photograph.

James Carroll’s second love is photography. His first was baseball. In between came something called college. His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Black & White, and other publications. He lives in New York City.

Sandy Carter is a semi-retired photojournalist who lives in Bellingham, Washington. She is the coauthor of Women in Medicine: A Celebration of Their Work.

Perry Dilbeck is the author of The Last Harvest: Truck Farmers in the Deep South. He teaches at the Art Institute of Atlanta and lives in Locust Grove, Georgia.

Ethan Hubbard lives at Udder Joy Farm in the Chelsea Hills of northern Vermont. A longtime traveler, he’s currently at work on three books about the shepherds of Great Britain.

Kim McAlear is an avid outdoorswoman who hopes to backpack the Pacific Coast Trail, though maybe not all at once. She lives in Ithaca, New York.

Link Nicoll is a Washington, D.C.–based photographer and educator, and the author of Small Things Considered. She was named Link before the digital revolution but enjoys having a name that young people consider cool.

Joan Rekemeier studied art at the University of Vermont and tries to listen to her inner voice, no matter how crazy it sounds. She lives in Bridgewater, New Jersey, with her husband and two boys.

Jennifer Spelman lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, home of the world’s best green-chili hamburger. She is a freelance editorial and documentary photographer.

Cole Thompson lives on a ranch in Laporte, Colorado. As a boy, he stumbled on the ruin of a home once owned by Kodak founder George Eastman. He’s been interested in photography ever since.